Team Anna demands inclusion of Citizen’s Charter in Lokpal

New Delhi: Team Anna insisted that that Citizen’s Charter, specifying a time limit on the services provided by the government departments should be included in the Lokpal Bill as it will help the common people to get their work done.“Citizen’s Charter in the Lokpal Bill is a must. It will help people get their work done in a time-bound manner,” Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal said.

India is famous for babu’s who deliberately sit on files to cause delays and extract bribes. “Citizen’s Charter will effectively check this,” he said. Inclusion of such a charter was one of the three key demands put forward by Team Anna for Anna Hazare to call off his hunger strike at Ramlila Maidan here in August.

Parliament had urged the Standing Committee to consider this demand. However, the draft bill does not provide for a Citizen’s Charter and, instead, the Government has prepared a draft Public Greivances Bill. Activist Kiran Bedi said the government’s stand was not clear yet on the issue of bringing the anti-corruption wing of CBI under Lokpal.

“Anti-corruption wing of CBI must come under an independent Lokpal. (Government’s stand is) not clear yet,” she said.